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Not good Dr. Reefs Quarantined Fish Experience

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Trommell

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Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a first hand experience I am having with Dr.ReefsQuarantinedFish. I placed an order with Dr.ReefsQuarantinedFish on June 2nd, 2022 for 2 Black Storm Clownfish, 2 Banggai Cardinals, and 1 Orchid Dottyback. I received confirmation my order had been placed on the same day. The following day, June 3rd I received another email updating me "Your order is now Livestock Acquired & being QT'ed."

So far so good and I was settling in to wait. Based on the information available on their website, as shown below, I was expecting 1-2 weeks before some of the fish would be shipping with understanding it could be much longer if the fish happen to be out of stock and the specimens did not fair well in quarantine.
1657049344256.png

Once the first couple weeks passed, without any further contact from Dr. reef, I deduced the fish will be in quarantine for at least 30 days since he must not of had the fish available and had to acquire for the order. As we were approaching the 30 day mark of the quarantine process, June 29th, I reached out and called Dr.reefs number from his website to inquire on my order. My call was answered quickly and the representative informed me my order was nearing the end of quarantine and the Fish were being scheduled to ship the following week and to wait for the payment link. An email had also arrived about 2 hours prior to my call that I was unaware of at the time as shown below. On the email it states "Payment link will be sent few days prior to shipping".
1657050875326.png

I was elated and began religiously checking my email for the payment link dozens of times per day. No further communications came. So I waited until after the holiday and sent an email to the vendor inquiring about the payment link. An email response comes 3 hours later and says,
"Hi
We sent you an invoice to pay but you didn't pay so it got cancelled due to non-payment.
We will send you an invoice again on the weekend.
Thank you"

I responded informing the vendor we did not receive a payment link and requesting to get the link sent so we can still ship this week and have yet to receive a response. I also called the vendors number again today as soon as they opened today (2pm central time) to attempt to resolve this however the customer service this time was atrocious. The representative told me the order had been canceled due to non pay and when I attempted to speak the representative would not stop talking over me to the point I was not able to convey anything to them. I told the representative that it was impossible to understand him while he was talking over me and asked if we could take turns speaking, to which to representative continued to speak over me during the question just repeating he would relay the message to Mike.

A single email, phone call, text message anything would have sufficed to remedy this issue before canceling an order. Just a note to reach and say "hey we haven't received your payment yet and will cancel your order if not received by x" but you sent zero communications.

I am not happy.
 

Dr. Reef

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Once someone does not pay, system automatically puts it in non payment stauts. We dont pull it from there till client calls back and wants their order.
99% of the people pay immeditely when they get this email and 1% dont and we dont wait on them. If they need it they will follow back. Its not our job to keep asking for payment once its been sent once, I dont do this for money, rather for fun and passion.
Attached is the copy of the email you claim we didnt send. was sent on 29th of June and was never paid till 15 min ago. I can post the payment screen shot too if you like showing when it was paid.
 

Dr. Reef

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here is a list of all emails sent to you via our automatic email server at every step of the way. Apart from whatever my teammembers have been sending you.

amanda2.jpg
 

Dr. Reef

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Policies are clearly stated on our FAQ page.
 

Dr. Reef

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I feel like you think we didnt communcated with you on this order, but we clearly did and we attached the proof along with this. At this point you are not happy, already, so its best not to further go into this transaction. Once bitterness starts there is no end to it. So best I am refunding your money. Thank you
Mike Dr. Reef

amanda4.jpg
 
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Trommell

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Once someone does not pay, system automatically puts it in non payment stauts. We dont pull it from there till client calls back and wants their order.
99% of the people pay immeditely when they get this email and 1% dont and we dont wait on them. If they need it they will follow back. Its not our job to keep asking for payment once its been sent once, I dont do this for money, rather for fun and passion.
Attached is the copy of the email you claim we didnt send. was sent on 29th of June and was never paid till 15 min ago. I can post the payment screen shot too if you like showing when it was paid.

I feel like you think we didnt communcated with you on this order, but we clearly did and we attached the proof along with this. At this point you are not happy, already, so its best not to further go into this transaction. Once bitterness starts there is no end to it. So best I am refunding your money. Thank you
Mike Dr. Reef

amanda4.jpg
Does doing this just for fun and passion mean that you need to respond to your customers’ with a complete disregard for their issue, and what this experience may have to offer if you just take a moment to consider there may actually be an issue with your system? Your smarmy response is absolutely uncalled for.

I just bought my first home and obtained my dream of owning a saltwater aquarium. After several months of research, videos, forums, local stores etc. I bought my 200 GL fish tank, went all out for my future fish and reef, manual test to full apex system automation so that I could make sure they had the most optimal chance I could possibly provide them. Got my own RODI system set up, salt water mixing station, automated dosing, cycled my tank, culturing copepods and phytoplankton. It’s been months my family is so ready for fish we can’t contain our excitement.

After months of research I decided out of all the local stores, all the BRSTV and WWC information, top recommendations from trusted videos, forum information, and some questionable reviews pertaining to Dr. Reefs, I felt you had justifiable responses and reasonable actions taken such as getting a call center. You had the absolute best website, very transparent answers on all your processes out of everything else I had looked at. Excellent quarantine process exactly what I had been searching for. I felt more comfortable with what you had to offer than any of our local fish stores even. I had never felt so content with my choice for the first fish I was going to get in my tank! I even continued to search after and it only reaffirmed that you were excellent quality, a fellow hobbyist who seemed to share my opinions on what it means to really care for fish, own a limousine/taxi business, a software engineer, and someone who was not willing to sacrifice fish just to meet a customer’s demands.

You can imagine my disappointment now. You respond to me as if I am some babbling idiot presenting me with made up stats and acting as if my claim is completely ludicrous and then I finally do get a link to pay, I pay you, and you refund my order?


I am a computer programmer for a living and I have developed quite a few system automations myself. If you cared enough to do a little more investigating there is possibly an error in that system causing issues with the communications you are attempting to send. Especially since you provided the proof of at least attempting to send me the pay link option which would have been nice and relevant had it not have been followed with an untactful response below it. I checked every email you sent immediately after you sent it due to my utter excitement in getting to pay you this money that was burning a hole in my pocket for these fish that my entire family and friendship circle are thrilled about.

I only received one email on the 29th, it was sent 30 min prior to the time stamp on message receipt you have provided. I checked every folder possible including spam.

Below is a screen shot of the search through my entire email for all dr. reef emails that I received in total and an image of the email I did receive on the 29th not containing any options to pay.

1657064159475.png


1657064350517.png

1657064620943.png


If you are passionate about this like you seem to be based on the other things that I have witnessed, and not this appalling interaction that we have had up to this point.
I recommend at least having respect for a customer to communicate enough to find out if there is a real issue or not.

After investigating the potential system issue or maybe odd one off error, which caused what I experienced. I would add a cancel status email to your automation that triggers when their account is automatically put into non pay status so they know there is an issue at all. So they actually know that they need to reach out.

When I did call into the call center the connection cuts in and out it is very choppy making it difficult to hear, this was also happening when the agent left a message after receiving payment from today.

Lastly with a pure optimistic heart it would be wonderful if you could take a few steps back consider where I am coming from and attempt to make this transaction right between us, instead of just giving up on me as a customer all together, I am not troll, real person over here.
 
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Dr. Reef

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I refunded the order, I never said I am not sending you the fish.
 
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Trommell

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I refunded the order, I never said I am not sending you the fish.
"Not going further with this transaction", implied no fish. I hope this response is coming from a place of understanding, you made me smile that is for sure it is impossible for me to not be happy about getting fish... I guess lets work on our communication going forward. You really didn't have to do that you are worth the money I just needed a sorry that happened lets work this out.

I am very excited though, are we getting them Friday?!?!
 
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please check your spam and junk folder, email will be from [email protected] and notr from Dr reef
It is there so your system is good! Just played email switch on me. Did not anticipate that as all the others came from the dr. reef email. Were there warnings about looking for a different email, that I missed? I read so much multiple times.

Also when you look at the steps, our account never went into status Awaiting Payment like moved through the others this is another portion that made this part confusing.
 
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Dr. Reef

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It is there so your system is good! Just played email switch on me. Did not anticipate that as all the others came from the dr. reef email. Were there warnings about looking for a different email, that I missed? I read so much multiple times.

Also when you look at the steps, our account never went into status Awaiting Payment like moved through the others this is another portion that made this part confusing.
That i have to admit, we went from qted and ready to ship to invoice and then non payment. Anyways I am still shipping them and you will receive them friday.
 

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"Not going further with this transaction", implied no fish. I hope this response is coming from a place of understanding, you made me smile that is for sure it is impossible for me to not be happy about getting fish... I guess lets work on our communication going forward. You really didn't have to do that you are worth the money I just needed a sorry that happened lets work this out.

I am very excited though, are we getting them Friday?!?!
no worries like i said i do this for passion of the hobby and for the fish, I own 2 other businesses and this is just a hobby tunred into business. consider it a 4th of july gift or xmas in july lol
 
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Trommell

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It is there so your system is good! Just played email switch on me. Did not anticipate that as all the others came from the dr. reef email. Were there warnings about looking for a different email, that I missed? I read so much multiple times.

That i have to admit, we went from qted and ready to ship to invoice and then non payment. Anyways I am still shipping them and you will receive them friday.
We are very excited, thank you for the fish. Will I be receiving an email for tracking?
I look forward to our improved communication and doing business with you in the future, I do appreciate you eventually taking the time to hear me out.

Thank you Mike.
 
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no worries like i said i do this for passion of the hobby and for the fish, I own 2 other businesses and this is just a hobby tunred into business. consider it a 4th of july gift or xmas in july lol
Could not have come at a better time to be honest, beginning of August I am helping a family member move to Oregon. I am much more excited about the fish making it on time for us to acclimate them appropriately.

Side Note: If the payment email for some specific reason has to come from the alternate email address, I recommend adding Dr. Reef to any portion of the email subject, body, etc. that way, even if it were to get spammed it would still pop up in a search. ;)
 
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Trommell

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Could not have come at a better time to be honest, beginning of August I am helping a family member move to Oregon. I am much more excited about the fish making it on time for us to acclimate them appropriately.

Side Note: If the payment email for some specific reason has to come from the alternate email address, I recommend adding Dr. Reef to any portion of the email subject, body, etc. that way, even if it were to get spammed it would still pop up in a search. ;)
We recieved the fish yesterday and they are absolutely perfect! Healthy specimens, excellent vibrant colors. The orchid dottyback has even acclimated very well went from hiding in a corner barley moving all day to overnight he now has a few tunnles picked a cave and is swimming all around his spot very active. They are truly amazing, its so hard to stop watching the tank.

Thanks again Mike (Dr.Reef)

A truly rewarding experience making it all worth!
 
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